KUCHING: SEGi Education Group’s (SEGi) international strategy is set to receive a boost from its academic collaborations with two leading institutions from China, namely the Xinjiang Language Centre and Linyi Normal University.
COLLABORATION: Students who had completed their diploma studies or the first part of their degrees in the Chinese universities will have the option of articulating their studies into business, management and accountancy degrees at SEGi University College in Malaysia.
The twinning arrangement with Xinjiang Language Centre would see SEGi providing its expertise and syllabus in Intensive English Programme and Foundation courses to be conducted at Xinjiang Language Centre’s 24 learning institutions.
This would be set up within the next 12 months in Xinjiang and other provinces in China such as Hubei and Henan, it said in a recent press statement.
The upshot in the strategic tie-up is that SEGi would be able to tap into the Language Centre’s 20,000 student base who were eyeing quality education beyond the shores of China after the completion of their initial studies in their home country.
Under the collaboration, students would undertake SEGi’s language courses and foundation programmes in the China-based institutions for between six months and one year, before coming over to SEGi campuses in Malaysia to complete their foundation for another three to four months, before articulating into various degree programmes available at SEGi.
Quality of SEGi’s awards were ensured as students would be assessed before they complete their studies at each level, both in China and when they are studying at SEGi campuses in Malaysia.
Students have the wide option of pursuing degrees in a wide range of disciplines such as medicine, pharmacy, optometry, engineering, computing, business, accountancy, psychology, hotel and tourism management, creative arts and design courses awarded by SEGi University College or twinned with its consortium of global partners.
Among SEGi’s partner universities are University of Sheffield, Sunderland University and University of Abertay Dundee, University of Greenwich from the United Kingdom, University of Southern Queensland from Australia and Upper Iowa University from the United States.
SEGi was confident of attracting about more than 1,000 students who were scheduled to complete their language studies, to arrive within the next 12 months, as a result of the new collaboration.
The figure was set to grow exponentially after students have completed SEGi programmes offered at Xinjiang Language Centre after that.
SEGi’s international strategy involved building on its strong brand by expanding its reach into regional markets such as China, Indo-China, Indonesia, Maldives and the Middle East through academic partnership with strategic partners overseas who will provide the campus ‘hardware’ for the students’ initial studies in their home countries.
This strategy reduced the risks associated with high capital investment in infrastructure overseas.
SEGi was also in final stages of discussions with Linyi Normal University on a similar collaboration.
Linyi is a government-owned university and is one of the oldest universities in the Shandong province in China.
The working relationship with Linyi involved students who had completed their diploma studies or the first part of their degrees in the Chinese university.